Plan to develop $15 million building in Tumwater gets council’s approval
A Tumwater architecture firm told the City Council on May 26 that Tumwater’s population is growing faster than projected, and City Hall needs more room for more employees to keep up with that growth.
The City Council unanimously approved plans to direct staff to look into purchasing the former Washington State Department of Health building at 310 Israel Road SE for $15 million.
The plan was one of four options that architecture firm Artisans Group gave the City Council. The other options were to stay put in the current building located at 555 Israel Road SW and slowly build additions; build a new police department and move those operations out of City Hall; or construct a new City Hall building and keep police and fire operations in the current building.
City Administrator Paul Simmons took the City Council on a tour of the current City Hall after a meeting in April. In an email on April 14, he told The Olympian that the current City Hall was built in 1987 and housed 63 employees, who served a community of 8,500 residents. He said now, Tumwater has 255 employees and they serve more than 27,000 residents.
“This is not a new problem for us, currently our Water Resources and Sustainability is leasing space with SPSCC for administrative offices,” Simmons said. “A year ago, the Parks and Recreation Department Administrative staff was required to lease office space and move outside of City Hall due to space constraints. We have two departments already pushed out of City Hall and are experiencing the cost of City Hall being undersized.”
Simmons said during the May 26 meeting that he’s conducted 39 one-on-one meetings with city employees since he started in his position in January. He said of those, 29 work out of City Hall, and the majority agreed that it’s hard to do their job in the current space.
He said some employees are two or three people deep in one office, and some are sharing space with supervisors or subordinates, making it difficult to have confidential conversations.
“It’s hard to be on the phone,” he said. “It’s hard to be in a virtual meeting when you have someone sitting three feet from you. It’s really hard to work through conflict in a healthy way. If you’re having something that you’re struggling with and they’re two feet from you all day, every day, it’s hard to work through that. And so it just creates some dynamics that can be challenging.”
Simmons said parking is also a challenge at the current building. There are currently 74 spots, and a 2015 Master Plan that projected growth up to 2045 called for 175 parking spots.
He said there aren’t enough conference rooms, nor are there wellness facilities like a gym. He said staff keep being told to make the best of it, but they’re reaching a point where that’s getting more difficult to do every day.
Simmons said he thinks the current City Hall affects how they recruit and retain staff.
He said the city is in a unique position to consider using one of the several vacant buildings left behind by the state’s transition to predominantly remote work.
He said the City Council was given a tour of the current building in April to help them better understand the problem and the need. At the same time, the city contracted with Artisans Group to conduct a spatial analysis and come up with options for the council to consider.
Senior Architect and Project Manager Lindsey Barronian said during the meeting that their work was built off Tumwater’s 2015 Master Plan, which included a proposal that would have added 22,000 square feet to the current City Hall building. The project would have included a new urban park at the back of the property with trails, bodies of water and a garden.
A similar option was pitched to the council on May 26. However, she said Tumwater has grown quicker than that plan projected. And parking is constrained at the current site, so the idea of an urban park would likely become a parking lot in that plan.
Barronian said the city could consider constructing a new City Hall entirely, like the city of Olympia. However, she said such a project would be costly and would likely be paid for by voters through a ballot measure. She said that might be a “very difficult ask in these times.”
She said the option of a new police station to free up space, like the city of Lacey did, would still require an addition to the current City Hall.
Barronian said there would be similar issues with constructing a new police station as there are with constructing a new City Hall, including finding a property and funding construction of an essential facility. She said as an essential facility, the police department would need to be able to withstand an earthquake and continue to be operational after such a disaster. That comes with a 20% cost upgrade, she said.
The final option was to keep police in the current City Hall and purchase the 95,000 square-foot Department of Health building at 310 Israel Road. The facility was built in 2004 and is three stories tall.
Barronian said this would be the cheapest solution, with a building acquisition cost of $15 million.
According to Barronian’s presentation to council, the option of staying put and building additions to City Hall would cost around $48 million in today’s costs. She included the estimated cost if the city begins construction and retrofitting in 5 years, which brought the total to $73.8 million.
To construct a new City Hall, she said it would cost $50 million in today’s dollars. The inflated 5-year cost would be $69.3 million.
To construct a new police station, Barronian said it would cost $42.8 million in today’s dollars. The inflated 5-year cost would be $65.9 million.
In total, the option of purchasing and outfitting the DOH building for reuse, as well as retrofitting City Hall for the police department, would cost $32 million in today’s dollars. Barronian did not include inflated costs for this option, because the costs are dependent on the city moving soon to lock in the building purchase price.
She said the building purchase option allows the city’s money to go further, and that it’s the only one that can realistically happen faster than 5 to 7 years.
Barronian said the age of the DOH building means the city could be located there for at least 40 years. She said Tumwater can save time and money on design fees and construction costs by moving into an existing building.
Barronian said the city could take up about two thirds of the building within a year, and it would be fully used and staffed by the city in 40 years, if not sooner than that.
Simmons said the council can’t necessarily wait years to make a decision because the DOH building may no longer be available, or available at the price it’s currently being sold at.
Simmons said that just because the council supports the option of purchasing the DOH building doesn’t mean it will happen immediately. He said they would try to put the building under contract and secure the price, as well as a six-month term to give the city time to do its due diligence. That would include communicating with the public and having engagement opportunities.
He said the city would make a down payment on the property, because it does not have the money to purchase the building outright.
Mayor Leatta Dahlhoff said they won’t be raising taxes to make it happen. Simmons said that means they’re likely going to have to make sacrifices “in terms of the pace that we grow our staff in this to the future.”
He said the city has been in a quandary, because it can’t grow due to the lack of space. At the same time, it can’t afford to expand its physical footprint to bring more employees to the city.
“I just wanted to highlight that the way this building is acquired is through sacrifices and through economic growth in the city, not through raising people’s taxes,” Simmons said.
Simmons told The Olympian on May 27 that staff have been proactively working with the property owners and have been negotiating a Purchase and Sale Option Agreement, which will go before the City Council on Tuesday, June 2, for consideration.
According to Thurston County property records, the property is currently owned by Vine Street Group, an Arlington, Washington-based real estate developer that develops, owns and leases buildings to government agencies. The market value total for the property in assessment year 2025 was $24,505,800.
“This option agreement will give us exclusive rights to purchase the property for 6 months and will lock in an acquisition price,” Simmons told The Olympian. “In order for us to fully consider acquisition of this building, we need to better understand the full cost of the debt service, revenue opportunities, and ongoing operating costs (a full financial analysis).”
He said the building will also require some level of retrofit to meet the city’s needs.
“While we have a concept plan that could work, we’ll need to perform some additional design work and then scope out the cost of those retrofits,” he said. “This option buys us time to perform this additional work and gives us predictability on the acquisition price. It also gives us time to be fully transparent and receive feedback from the community along the way.”
.jpg)